South Shore police ratchet up warnings about kidnapping scam

Friday

Law enforcement on the South Shore has stepped up its warnings about a telephone scam in which the caller claims to have kidnapped a family member and demands a ransom.

Law enforcement personnel on the South Shore have stepped up their warnings about a telephone scam in which the caller claims to have kidnapped a family member and demands a ransom.

A Marshfield family was the most recent target Wednesday. Two teenage sisters were called and told that their sibling and father had been abducted and threatened. That wasn’t true, but was an attempt to get them to wire money that would end up with the people running the scheme.

“This scam has been reported all over the state,” Marshfield Police Chief Phil Tavares said.

The Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department this week posted new warnings about the scam on social media networks.

“We’re unfortunately seeing a rash of these in the area,” said Karen Barry, a spokeswoman for the Plymouth County sheriff. “The difficulty is that they are using a phone you are not able to track. We have to take a defensive posture.”

Police said the scammers use cellphones from overseas locations such as Nigeria or prepaid cellphones that can’t be traced to a single person.

Marshfield police Sgt. Jeff Brennan, who handled Wednesday’s threat against the local family, said his department has seen the scam many times but this was the first time he had heard of a case where two family members were called simultaneously.

The callers often search social media sites such as Facebook to learn the names of other family members.

“They do their homework and Google the whole town,” Brennan said of the callers engaged in this scam. “They’ll have you go to a specific place, and you think you’re being watched but you really aren’t.”

Brennan’s advice to anyone who receives such a phone call is not to indulge the caller.

“Say, ‘I know this is a scam, and I am calling the police right away.’ They’ll cross your name right off the list,” he said.

Barry said it is hard for people not to get pulled into the narrative of a family member in danger.